Babar the Elephant

Warning: this post contains a fair amount of history, but if you read, it should be well worth it. If you don't want to read it all, skip down to the bullet points at the bottom.

Is everyone familiar with the rather popular children's character Babar the Elephant? If not I suggest you take a look at this commercial because Babar is the subject of this post. Babar is a fairly old cartoon, first appearing in book form in 1931 and spanning many years and many different forms of media including television series and movies. A new book was published as recently as 2008, and a new visual production is slated for 2010, though its not clear if it will be a movie or a series. Babar has been translated into many different languages, and has remained popular since his introduction.

I was rather surprised then to come to the realization that Babar the Elephant was, and to some extent remains to this day, a propaganda vehicle for promoting puppet colonialism.

Allow me to explain.

Earlier this evening I was watching a movie on television that I'd previously seen when it was in theaters. The movie is called The Last King of Scotland and is based on Giles Foden's novel of the same name. The story is semi-historical fiction, using the actions of the fictional Scottish physician Nicholas Garrigan (loosely based on English doctor Bob Astles) as a way to explore the very real dictatorship of Idi Amin Dada. Amin initiated a military coup in 1971, establishing himself as the ruler of Uganda after deposing Milton Obote. Amin was a harsh dictator who committed a range of nefarious deeds. As the movie portrays, he shared many traits with African dictators (and even modern bureaucrats). Such traits include favoring lies, even obvious ones, over any truth they think outsiders, and particularly non-Africans might look down on. Similarly common is personal hyberbole including a multitude of ridiculous titles (like Amin's "Conqueror of the British Empire") and insane assertions like the inability to be killed, which at some level the men actually believe.

So I'm laying there watching this great movie, and watching the Garrigan character first get enraptured by Amin's charm, only to quickly realize his darker side. During a commercial I start flipping through channels and happen upon an episode of Babar. And the wheels started turning.

I'd already found it funny that Amin was overweight, since that is relatively uncommon in Africa. And then I see elephants which only come in two variates, African and Asian. I assume them as African (due to the large ears), and associate them with the overweight Amin. Then I notice Babar is wearing the crown, and it all starts to make sense. Here we have an elephant wearing a crown, and appearing delightful, charming, and intelligent. Kingship is a decidedly non-Asian concept, further convincing me I was dealing with an African elephant, and one perhaps far more sinister than his demeanor intoned.

See, Amin was helped in to place by the British, its a long story as to how, but trust me, it was pretty clear. And something about that, something about the African dictator taking power with backing by the former colonial power of that country, and being at least superficially charming just made it click. I was now very suspicious of Babar the elephant. I suddenly assumed him to be a similar colonial plant. But I wanted to do some checking first.

I got online and did some quick digging. Turns out Babar debuted, as earlier stated, in 1931 as a children's book character. My first big kick here was that the author was a Frenchman named Jean du Brunhoff. Most of you should recognize that France was a serious colonial power, beginning to take holdings as early as the 17th century, though with failed attempts starting as early as 1555, and continuing rule as far as into the 1970s. Their colonial turnovers even set up the Vietnam conflict. And not only was Brunhoff French, but he'd also served in the French military in World War I.

This held particular significance. Though holding together mostly until serious troubles during World War II, the period after World War I saw the introduction of widespread anti-colonial thinking. This thinking developed not only in the colonies, but in Great Britian and France as well. And during this time Brunhoff marries a woman named Cecile, and they have some babies. And as they grow up, Cecile starts telling the younger son these stories about this elephant, which Jean later published as the world's introduction of Babar.

But I hear the grumblings. Right now all I have is a presumably African elephant king created by the citizen of a colonial power. Okay, let's kick it up and take a closer look at the story of Babar.

Babar is happily plodding along through the jungle one day when his mother is killed by a hunter. Seeing this from a distance, Babar flees the jungle to an unnamed big city. Here Babar is meets an old lady who buys him clothes and sends him to school. Babar later returns to the elephant realm where a council of elephants approach him, asking him to be king. They point out he has been educated in France, not previously mentioned, and that this education and introduction to civilization make him an ideal choice for the new king. Babar marries his cousin Celeste and founds the city of Celestville. Notice the French ending there. He then introduces many cultural and structural reforms with western, and particularly French influence, like wearing clothes. Convinced yet?

A young African elephant heads to a civilized place to be educated, and returns to be installed as king and introduce reforms to "civilize" country. Well it sure sounds like post-colonial puppetism. As the colonial powers lost their grip, they made attempts to maintain some vestige of control. Most often this involved choosing the new "independent" government. Sometimes behind the scenes, sometimes openly, but always with someone friendly to the former rulers and usually someone educated there. Need another little push, there is a Babar story arc where an assassin tries to kill him. Sound incongruous with his image, and the fact that its a children's story?

Still not convinced? Go back and watch the video. Notice the elephant who asks Babar to be king. Wearing a clearly early 20th century Western style suit and glasses, and a hat. Go ahead and say it.

So by this point it was pretty clear to me what Babar really was, and perhaps still is. He began as an attempt to teach children, and potentially their parents, that the local populations of France's colonial holdings desired, were thankful for, and certainly needed the benefits of French civilization.

Being pseudo-intellectual wannabe, I was ultimately consumed with the question of whether Babar was based on a real colony or person. Low and behold, not only did I make a potential connection, it helps strengthen the case for Babar's real purpose.

I'm now fairly sure that the elephant kingdom represented in Brunhoff's Babar stories was based on the area that has become the modern Republic of Cameroon, and that Babar himself represents Charles Atangana.

Cameroun was a part of French Equatorial Africa, a large federation of colonies in middle Africa France grabbed during the late 19th century African colonial scramble. Due to some interesting circumstances, France ended up ceding part of Cameroun to Germany who then took protectorate possession of the entire holding. Atangana was growing up in the territory at this time and due to his relationships with foreign priests and dignitaries, recieved a combo French-German education in Cameroun's fairly modernized capital. After World War I, Atangana fled to France because of his association with the ousted Germans. Shortly thereafter, the League of Nations redfined Cameroun's status. It did not re-enter the FEA and was instead set up as a protectorate of France. Under such a system France provided Cameroun's military and police, but a local political system ran all domestic matters.

After some initial distrust, France selected Atangana as the paramount chief of Cameroun. This essentially made him the countrys ruler. See Cameroun had essentially two different ethnic groups, all with different cheifs, and one had to be selected to head the government. Atangana used his position to espouse loyalty to the French and introduced a plethora of reforms aimed at westernizing Cameroun.

Sound fairly similar to Babar right? Including Babar's monkey advisor (representing the chief of the other "ethnic" group), and the fact that the old lady comes to live in the land as an honored guest.

So let's surmise:

• Babar was a young elephant who fled the jungle (a symbol of either Africa or Asia), and was subsequently educated in a civilized big city (representing Europe, and France in particular) with the aid of an old lady (representing "more advanced" Westerners).
• Barbar is later convinced to return to his home country (the conolonial holding). Upon returning he is asked to be the new king by the elephant council (the provincial government), clearly influenced by an elephant far more Westernized than Babar himself (the colonial power truly running the puppet elephant council).
• Babar agrees and assumes control, weiding clearly autocratic power, with a virtually limitless reach.
• Babar pushes his learnings of civilization on the other elephants, including clothes and houses, all in vaguely French style.
• Despite his good nature, and universally wise decision making, Babar has opposition elements, including a potential assassin.
• Babar works with other ethnic groups and invites the old lady to be a resident of the country.

And there you have it. Babar the elephant, the beloved children's cartoon character started out as propaganda piece to advocate colonialism through the establishment of indigenous puppet governments.

I wonder what else like this is lurking out there.